Unfair Trade
by Emador
Summary: Jack makes the difficult choice to help someone who's wronged him. Rated for certain implications the story makes. [Written for the Newsies Pape Selling Competition. Theme: Freedom; Task 2: Write about a time when a newsie was forced to let go of their freedom for something or someone. Prompts: green, chains, shouting.]


Author's Note: This was written for the Newsies Pape Selling Competition. Circulation 1 of season 2. Task 2: Write about a time when a newsie was forced to let go of their freedom for something or someone. Prompts: green, chains, shouting. Word count: 1,641 words.

* * *

Elmer burst through the door of the lodging house. "Anna got arrested," he said, breathless with his hands resting on his knees.

"For what?" Race asked, his brow furrowed.

Elmer stood up straight, still catching his breath. "I don't know," he said. "I just saw her in the wagon headed to the Refuge.

Jack sighed and cursed under his breath.

All the newsies looked at Jack to see what he was going to do.

"What?" he asked the stares that met him.

"Well," said Albert slowly. "She _was_ your girl."

Jack gave him a look. "Well, then I guess Spot can bail her out, yeah?" With that, he stood up and stormed out of Jacobi's.

Race smacked Albert on the back of the head. "Idiot."

Jack walked down the street, kicking pebbles as he did. What responsibility of his was it to help Anna out? She'd made her choice abundantly clear. She'd wanted nothing to do with him, so why should he be so concerned about her? Not that he _could_ help her out anyway. He'd managed to escape the Refuge once, but that had been a moment of opportunity.

He found himself on the Brooklyn Bridge. He sighed and crossed over into Spot Conlon's territory, knowing word would spread to Spot quickly that he was there and Spot would find him. He bought himself a soft pretzel from a vendor while he waited, though it wasn't long before Spot turned the corner and approached Jack.

"Heya, Jack," he said casually, though he was anything but. Due to recent history, he didn't know why Jack would be wandering into Brooklyn.

"Hey Spot," Jack said taking a bite of the pretzel. "How's things?"

Spot shrugged. "Can't complain. Everything good on your side of the bridge?"

Jack nodded, though had yet to make eye contact with Spot. "Anna got herself locked up," said Jack. "Wanted to see what you were gonna do about it."

"That's news to me," said Spot. "I ain't seen Anna in weeks."

Jack frowned and looked at Spot. "Why not?"

"She left," said Spot. "A couple weeks after everything came out, she said she couldn't take the guilt and wanted to go home."

Jack didn't say anything, just took another thoughtful bite of his pretzel. Home? He hadn't seen Anna since their last conversation on the Brooklyn Bridge. "She never came home," said Jack.

Spot didn't say anything, but it was clear he had no intention of helping Anna.

"I'll see ya around," said Jack, turning and walking away.

* * *

That night, Anna sat in the large bunkroom in the girls' wing of the House of Refuge. She curled up in the corner of a bunk, hugging her knees to her chest as she listened to the sounds around her. Some girls slept, some chatted, occasionally a voice or two shouted before they were quickly shushed. All of the girls' noise was against the backdrop of the rats and roaches scuttling about. Anna had heard Jack's stories from the Refuge, but experiencing it was something else altogether.

Anna was lost in her own thoughts until she saw a hand waving a few inches from her face. She looked up and saw one of the other girls – she was Anna's age but had been in the Refuge for much longer.

"What?" asked Anna.

"I said you got a visitor at the window," she said, before turning and walking away.

Anna crawled out of the bunk and tiptoed across the room. She froze a few feet from the window when she saw Jack's face in the open window, illuminated by the little light from the bunkroom. She closed the distance between them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked softly.

"Elmer told me you got locked up, where else would I be?" he said.

Anna swallowed. She looked down at her hands. "Anywhere else, after what I did to you."

Jack couldn't argue with that. He didn't even know why he'd come after what had happened between them, but he knew he couldn't let her sit and rot away in that hellhole.

"Looks like they got the girls side a lot more secure than the boys," said Jack, looking the bars on the window up and down.

Anna nodded. "A lot more fellas willin' to bust a girl out than a boy, I suppose."

There was an awkward silence between them for a bit before Jack reached through the bars and took her hand. "Hey," he said softly. "I'm gonna get you outta here."

Anna looked up at him and shook her head. "You don't have to," she said. "I got what I deserved."

"No one deserves this," said Jack.

Anna averted her eyes and she felt the sting of oncoming tears. Jack Kelly always had been too good for her. Even still, she couldn't help but squeeze his hand.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Jacky, I'm so, so sorry for what—"

"It's over," Jack cut her off, not wanting to relive the past. "You hang in there. I'll come back tomorrow."

Anna nodded, hanging onto his hand until the last possible instant as he descended the fire escape. She watched him until he hit the street and disappeared.

"So you and Jack Kelly, huh?" said one of the girls nearby. "He's a catch, honey. Even for a newsie. Good for you."

"Yeah," said Anna, not wanting to talk about him with anyone.

"From the sounds of it you two ain't an item no more," the other girl pried. "What happened?"

Anna swallowed. "I messed up." With that she turned and walked back to her bunk and curled up again, willing sleep to come.

* * *

"I'm tellin' you, Jack, it ain't possible," said Specs. "The only money Snyder ever spends on that place is security. Better bars, more guards. It's impossible to bust a girl outta there."

"And we know how bad the guards are on the boys side," said Mush. "You even wanna think about the guards on the girls side?"

"No," Jack snapped, to wanting to think about what Anna could be enduring even at that very moment. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. How was he going to get Anna out of the Refuge?

"Why you even wanna get her out anyway?" asked Race. "She dumped you for Conlon, remember?"

All eyes fell on Race, amazed he would voice that aloud. Jack slowly turned to Race. "Yes, I do remember," he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "But thank you for reminding us all. Besides, Anna is one of us. No matter what…bad decisions she's made, Conlon has turned his back on her. It's up to us to take care of her."

Race shared a doubtful look with Albert, but didn't say another word.

"You know," Specs said slowly. "There is _one_ way you could get her out…"

Jack looked at him, already knowing what Specs was about to say.

* * *

The door to the bunkroom banged open, causing several girls to jump. "Anna Preston," the guard called out.

Anna looked up, her heart in her throat. There was never a good reason a guard called a girl out of the room, and her hands began to sweat.

"It'll be alright, darlin'," one of the other, kinder, girls whispered, as she gently pushed Anna towards the door.

"Just close your eyes and pretend your somewhere else," whispered another.

Anna slowly moved toward the door until she was within grabbing distance of the guard. He grabbed her upper arm and pulled her through the door. He pulled her through the halls of the Refuge – halls she'd only walked through once, when she first got arrested. She was pulled into Snyder's office and pushed into a green upholstered chair.

"Ah, Miss Preston, said Mr. Snyder from behind his desk. "I believe you know Mr. Kelly." He gestured to the chair next to Anna's.

Anna looked over and saw Jack sitting there. He kept his eyes on Snyder's desk, not moving. She looked down and saw the manacles on his wrists.

"Jack, what are you doing?" she asked.

When Jack didn't respond, Snyder spoke up. "He's come to bargain for your freedom." Anna looked over at Snyder. "You see, he agreed to turn himself in if I agreed to let you go. Release a small fish to get my white whale, so to speak."

"Jack, don't do this," Anna said.

"Too late," said Jack, still not looking at her.

"Take him away," said Snyder. A guard appeared on either side of Jack, though it was unnecessary – he wasn't going to resist. The only sound was that of the chains on the manacles clinking as Jack was taken away.

"You, my dear," said Snyder, "are free to go." And he dismissed her with no more a wave than he would a fly that was bothering him.

Anna stepped out into the warm afternoon. She stood on the sidewalk for a few moments, looking around before she turned and looked back up at the building.

"You better move along, or someone might think you want to go back," said a voice next to her. She looked over and saw Specs standing next to her.

"Why did he do it?" she asked.

Specs put his hand on her back and led her away from the building. "Ain't hard to guess," he said. "But he told me to take you home and look out for you while he's locked up."

Anna sighed and shook her head. "I don't deserve this," she said. "After what I put him through?"

"Well, I won't tell you you're wrong," said Specs. "But don't let what he's doin' for you go to waste."


End file.
